2025 Pavement Management Plan
At a glance
Based on auto-generated captions plus the official minutes; figures may be misheard.
- What: the city's 2025 Pavement Management Plan (Apex Companies with Cyvl.ai, for the Department of Transportation and Mobility and DPW), which rates every street block by pavement condition index (PCI) and favors cheap preservation treatments over worst-first rebuilding. Tony Economou's order (item 12m, 2026-07-21) sent it to a joint committee review.
- Where it stands: reviewed 2026-08-25; both committees held the item 3-0.
- Next: more discussion of the chip seal failures (Rubber Chip Seal Failures and Cape Seal Pilot); a rescan of the street network is under discussion; the September construction status report; councilor-driven reports on the selection process (Street and Sidewalk Rehabilitation Process).
The plan
- Released January 2025; work began late 2023. Presented by John K. Westerling, Stephen S. Rolle and Jay Mello, with Frank Marinaccio of Apex.
- Block-by-block GIS map; a public version is on the DPW and DTM websites.
- 2023 scan: average PCI 69.6; about 21 percent of streets rated poor; about 480 miles of road, about 160 miles (30 percent) in the preservation band.
- Goal: keep most roads near PCI 80 and above the 65 'complaint line'.
Costs
- Worst-first: about $19.4 million a year (2023 dollars); balanced preservation: about $16.2 million a year; 2023 backlog estimate $288 million.
- Costs are said to be about 30 percent higher now, so the 2023 projections no longer hold.
- Past annual spending was about $12-13 million; this year about $20 million (Fresolo recalled $22 million), plus about $2 million from MassDOT for Grafton Street.
- Preventative work about $10-15 per square yard versus over $100 for reclamation or reconstruction.
Treatments discussed
- Routine: crack seal (all roads at age 5), permanent patching (first serious program this year); fog seal avoided.
- Preventative: rubber chip seal, microsurfacing and ultra-thin bonded wearing course, cape seal.
- Rehabilitation: hot-in-place recycling (dropped), cold-in-place (used on Granite Street), mill and overlay, full-depth reclamation, reconstruction.
Concerns raised
- Satya B. Mitra wants the major arteries (about 20 on Rolle's list, roughly $300 million) done in three to four years; see Street Resurfacing Capital Loan Program.
- Luis A. Ojeda, Robert A. Bilotta and Economou pressed on chip seal, inspection and contractor accountability.
- John P. Fresolo asked when district-pick streets start.
Discussion time
About 24 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).
| Meeting | Minutes |
|---|---|
| 2026-08-25 - Public Works and Traffic and Parking Joint Committee | 24 |
Log
- 2026-08-25 - Public Works and Traffic and Parking Joint Committee — Joint Public Works and Traffic and Parking review of the plan: PCI, cost scenarios, treatments, how streets are selected, chip seal problems, inspection capacity; Mitra's arterial request. Both committees held the item 3-0.
- 2026-07-21 - City Council — Economou's order (12m) referred the plan to a joint Public Works and Traffic and Parking meeting.